Is it duct or Duck tape? It is duct tape (Duck is just a brand of the tape) and the one thing it shouldn’t be used for is sealing ducts! Foil tape is much better for that.
It is however useful for pretty much anything else, from temporary repairs, hanging your Christmas lights or even making wallets! But I noticed recently just how much it varies in quality and price, so I thought it may be useful to do a comparison. Please also check out the video below to see all the tapes in action.
Comparison
I’m testing 5 brands of duct tape and also Gorilla clear repair tape since it has many similar uses:
| Length (metre) | Thickness (mil) | Thickness (micron) | Cost (pack) | Cost per metre | |
| Gorilla Tape | 11 | 16 | 406 | £3.54 | £0.32 |
| Gorilla Tape | 32 | 16 | 406 | £7.95 | £0.25 |
| Duck Ultimate | 25 | 8 | 203 | £4.99 | £0.20 |
| Duck Original | 50 | 6 | 152 | £3.90 | £0.08 |
| Lidl | 50 | 6 | 152 | £1.99 | £0.04 |
| Gorilla Clear Repair | 8.2 | 7 | 178 | £5.90 | £0.72 |
Gorilla Tape: 32m, 11m, 1″ handy roll
This is over double the thickness of the other tapes and truly stands alone. It’s rips very cleanly, has a very grippy adhesive and is very strong. It’s also releases cleanly from a lot of surfaces if not left too long.
If there’s any criticism of it, for some purposes it’s perhaps too thick. So it won’t conform to tighter radiuses for instance.
Duck Ultimate Cloth Tape
This is thicker than the original Duck tape and feels much better quality. It rips cleanly and also releases well from most surfaces.
It’s thin enough to conform well to more varied surfaces and is a good general purpose duct tape.
Duck Original Cloth Tape
This is thin as duct tape gets and doesn’t appear much better than the generic tapes available. It doesn’t tear cleanly, but better than the Lidl tape. But it is much cheaper than the premium tapes and also available in lots of colours and with various prints (penguins anyone?)
Lidl Duct Tape (by 3M)
This tape is incredibly cheap but I would avoid it. It’s difficult to tear and sticks to itself very easily. It’s the same thickness as the Duck Original tape but feels thinner. I’m unsure why 3m associate themselves with it.
Gorilla Clear Repair Tape
This isn’t actually duct tape and is by far the most expensive tape. But it’s fairly unique in that it’s a thick clear vinyl tape, also for temporary repairs. It’s designed for fixing tents, air mattresses etc.
It can also be used as a type of helicopter tape for protection of your mountain bike paintwork for instance. I’ve tried it for this and it’s good, but for easy tearing it has small serrations along the edge which may lift over time.
Duct tape in use
Fixing shop vacuum hose
The Duck Ultimate tape was perfect for this repair. It’s strong but thinner than the Gorilla tape, so conformed much better to the hose. This temporary repair was done over 6 months ago and is still going strong!
Braun ear thermometer
repair
We’ve had this for years and it’s had some rough treatment including being dropped in the bath – twice!
Recently it developed a fault where it wouldn’t recognise the plastic protective ear filters and therefore wouldn’t switch on. I tore a strip lengthways of the 1″ Gorilla Tape roll to hold the switch down to force it to recognise the filters and now it works just fine.
Conclusions
Overall it’s a close call between the Gorilla tape and the Duck Ultimate tape. I think the Gorilla tape is better value since it’s a much thicker, stronger tape. But for some situations it’s too thick.
The one roll I carry around with me is the 1″ Gorilla Tape roll since it’s the size of small roll of Sellotape and can handle most temporary repairs.
But I think both of these premium tapes deserve a place in your house or shed. If you’re looking for something cheaper, any of the generic 50m rolls of tape should be fine, if a little frustrating sometimes.
If you have found this article useful please consider clicking on the link(s) below. You pay the exact same price and it’ll enable me to keep these articles coming! Any questions, please ask away in the comments section below.
Gorilla Tape: 32m, 11m, 1″ handy roll
Duck Ultimate Cloth Tape
Duck Original Cloth Tape
Gorilla Clear Repair Tape
Great informative article as usual from the technology man.
Thank you for the feedback! I’m glad you found it useful.
What about t-Rex tape how does it hold up is it the same as gorilla tape? .
Check your units in the thickness column of table, It is not 16mm thick, it must be 1.6mm. 10x thinner.
Great stuff though.
Sorry if it’s unclear – but the table is correct. 16 mil is 16 thousandths of an inch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch
Is it strong enough to be used on car tent in -20C?
Hi I’m wanting to tape clear freezer bags to Hefty storage bins. I’m going to place a sheet of paper inside each bag so we can know what’s inside. They will be stored in freezing temperatures for a couple of months. What would be the best tape for this? It would be nice to be able to take the tape off later too. Thx.
Out of the tapes I looked at here – I’d probably go for the Gorilla Clear Vinyl tape. It can be used down to -12 degrees centigrade. UK: http://amzn.to/2jpg6ki, US: http://amzn.to/2kEcMmE.
I can confirm that the 3m tape from Lidl sucks gorilla balls! The adhesive comes always off and it rips in two halves way too easily when you try to rip a normal piece. On the bright side, if you prepare some pieces to secure something when you have only one free hand, and stick the pieces temporarily to a wire fence etc., they will still stick like hell so you can use them 4 wet winter weeks later!
Good to know – thanks!
EB Green is by far the strongest I’ve ever used. You need to be near the Electric Boat ship yard to get your hands on a roll though.
Actually it’s duck tape, and not duct tape. Duck is not just the brand. It was originally made of a kind of cloth known as cotton duck.
Now, why is cotton duck called that? No idea!
How does gorilla tape match up to flex tape? Which is stronger and which would you recommend on taping the seam on a vinyl hot tub cover?
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Very disappointed in this article. I’m trying to find out which tape adheres the best, not releases the best. The whole point of duct tape is to keep things together!
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Is it stronger than flex tape?
Sorry – I’ve never tried Flex tape.
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Great thanks for your comment!
can you paint over any of these tapes. I need to fix something to a door and then paint over the tape part.
Thank you for saving me time.